Mental Health Parity Enforcement Efforts Likely to Continue but with New Focus

Carrie Valiant, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, and Lesley Yeung, an Associate in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, authored an article in the Bloomberg Health Law Reporter, titled “Mental Health Parity Enforcement Efforts Likely to Continue but with New Focus.”

Following is an excerpt (see below to download the full report in PDF format):

The general concept of mental health parity is that insurers should provide the same coverage benefits for mental health and substance use disorder treatments as they do for medical and surgical treatments. This has become a hot topic in the health-care industry due to recognition of the “opioid epidemic” and the impact of behavioral health issues on medical outcomes. The enforcement of mental health parity generally has bi-partisan support. While efforts to enforce mental health parity rules are likely to continue, these efforts may look different over the coming years under a Trump administration.